


What Hides in the Shadows

by Spoodlemonkey



Series: Inktober/Goretober [8]
Category: RED (Movies)
Genre: Cooper finds out, First Time, M/M, Monsters, Supernatural Elements, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-16 22:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12351735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoodlemonkey/pseuds/Spoodlemonkey
Summary: They’re running down an arms dealer in Jersey when Cooper’s world gets tossed on its head.





	1. Chapter 1

They’re running down an arms dealer in Jersey when Cooper’s world gets tossed on its head. 

He’s doing it as a favor to Victoria, and for less honourable reasons, but who can say no to watching Frank Moses in action? And it starts out simple enough, grab the dealer, get his supplier and then take him out. Then he loses track of Marvin and Victoria in the maze of hallways beneath the hotel they’ve found Kowalski in. Not long after he loses track of Frank too. 

He’s never going to find his way out at this rate, he’s got a great head for directions but this place has him so turned around it wouldn’t surprise him if the others managed to complete the job without him. He guarantees Frank would find it funny to leave him down here, chasing his own tail for a few hours. 

His luck comes through though. Shortly after he’s resigned himself to this theory he spots their target. 

Unfortunately Kowalski spots Cooper too.

He pulls his gun, chasing the man through the maze of halls, deeper and deeper until he’s certain he’s fallen down a rabbit hole. 

They round a final corner and there’s nowhere to go. Kowalski lost his gun awhile back and Cooper grins, bares his teeth in smug satisfaction.

“Hands behind your head.” He orders, keeping his gun level. He’s not a rookie, he knows exactly where to shoot to get him to do what he wants without killing him.

“Fuck you.” He spits, gaze bouncing around the hall. There’s no escaping though, Cooper has him cornered and he knows it.

And then his eyes flash.

Cooper blinks, momentarily thrown off balance. 

“Now.” he tries again, keeps the steel in his voice and puts it down to a trick of the light. 

Kowalski grins and there’s something very  _ wrong _ about it, it's too wide, too sharp, there’s too many  _ teeth _ . 

Cooper shoots. 

The bullet hits Kowalski in the shoulder but he barely flinches. The blood that stains his white dress shirt isn’t red but black. He stalks forwards, like all of a sudden  _ Cooper _ is the prey and as he comes closer he can see the man’s eyes have changed from muddy brown to a sick, mucus green.

He fires again. The other shoulder, the man’s knees. 

They barely slow his stride. 

And then his smile grows, bigger and bigger, his mouth opening, wider and wider, jaw  _ unhinging _ and Cooper wavers. 

Kowalski lunges.

Something huge and  _ solid _ slams into Cooper and they go tumbling. He skids along the tiled floor, breath knocked out of him. Something heavy covers him and a moment later there’s a  _ shriek _ , something so inhuman it makes nausea pool in his gut, makes his skin crawl and ears pop. 

He blinks, feels weak, hands empty without his gun, without a means to defend himself. 

The weight on him lifts itself enough that he can draw in a deep breath, fill his lungs and try to steady himself. 

And then he chokes because there’s a  _ fucking wolf _ laying on him.

He tilts his head and Kowalski or whatever the  _ fuck _ it was is on the floor, ripped to shreds, that black blood leaking onto the tiles. A second wolf, smaller, white coat, is standing over Kowalski, paws and jaws covered in black. 

Cooper stays perfectly still, terrified, confused, and that's when Marvin comes skidding around the corner gun in hand.

“Oh,” he says, taking in the scene, remarkably calm. “I missed all of the fun.”

Cooper blinks and realizes he hasn’t been breathing for fear that it will set off the wolf above him. 

“Marvin,” he hisses, flinching when the wolf above him noses at his cheek suddenly. 

Marvin rolls his eyes and nudges Kowalski’s remains with his shoe.

“Frank,” he says, like that explains  _ anything _ . “Get off of him. He’s going to have a heart attack.” 

The wolf whines and almost reluctantly climbs off of Cooper. He doesn’t go far, sits back on his haunches and watches Cooper looking... _ pleased _ .

Cooper does  _ not _ want to say he knows that expression. 

Unfortunately, he’s pretty sure he does. 

“You’re fucking with me.” He accuses. 

Marvin’s stepped away from the mangled body, but only to pull out his phone and text. That in itself is surreal enough for Cooper.

“He probably is.” 

“I meant you.” 

“Frank, just change back already. You know Victoria won’t.” 

Cooper chokes a little as his gaze bounces to the smaller wolf now cleaning itself with a disgusted air about it. 

He clenches his eyes shut and decides that he has a concussion, or was drugged, or even better--  _ is still in bed asleep. _

But there’s the sickening sound of bones breaking and he forces his eyes open as the wolf before him whines and whimpers and finally is no longer  _ a wolf _ . 

“Shit,” a very naked Frank Moses groans, standing and shaking out his arms. Cooper tries, and fails, to keep his eyes on Frank’s chest and higher. 

_ Shit. _

“He’s going to pass out.” Marvin remarks and Cooper thinks, who? Frank?

“He’s fine.” Frank replies but there’s concern in his voice and a moment later his face appears in Cooper’s line of vision. When had he looked away? There are strange spots floating around Frank’s face too. He feels strangely numb, detached to the situation. “Actually, you don’t look too good kid.” 

Cooper blinks, slowly. 

“What the  _ fuck _ .” Sums it up nicely.

Then he passes out. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this took me a year to update!...or maybe I can...this is slowly forming into a larger series in my mind. Kudo's if you spot the crossover I slipped in- it's so tiny but I just couldn't help myself!

“You’d better start talking, cause I’m about two minutes away from grabbing some scotch and convincing myself this is all some wild hallucination.”

Frank cocks an eyebrow at him.

“I can’t believe you passed out.”

“ _ One minute and thirty seconds _ .” He hisses and Marvin reaches over to smack the back of Franks head. 

“ _ Ow _ ,” 

“Honestly Frank, you’re terrible at this.” Marvin has somehow become the voice of reason in the room and that is  _ terrifying _ to Cooper. “First Sarah and now Cooper. It’s like you just completely forget your human half.”

“Shut up Marvin.”

“Sorry,  _ what _ ?” 

“Maybe,” Ivan interrupts with a great deal of amusement at Coopers expense. “We should explain from the beginning.”

Cooper settles back on the couch, arms crossed and scans the room for the most expensive looking liquor he can find. There’s a lot. The only bonus to waking up in a cabin in the middle of  _ nowhere _ when he’s clearly been kidnapped by his lunatic friends. God, he must have been exposed to gases or something. Maybe a hallucinogenic drug. How else would one explain the  _ wolves _ . 

“We’re werewolves actually.” Is Frank's response to that particular theory. “Well, Victoria and I are. Ivan’s a bear.”

“I’m human.” Marvin chimes in helpfully. 

Its amazing how that’s the part that Cooper has the most trouble with.

“Right, so three of you have... _ supernatural powers _ ,” Cooper grimaces. “And somehow the CIA never found out?”

Frank laughs at that but it’s not a very pleasant sound. 

“Oh they knew, and they used it.”

“And somehow they kept it from your files?” Coopers seen their files, knows how much of it is redacted but something like that, how could they have kept it from getting out? If the supernatural were out there, they’d  _ know _ . 

“They kept any mention out, save for a code word so our handlers would know. And our handlers were always people with supernatural roots so the secret was easy to keep.” Frank shrugs. He must see the disbelief on Coopers face because he turns to Ivan. “It’s easier for you to shift, how about another demonstration.”

“Of course,” Ivan agrees cheerfully. 

“Are you sure it's a good idea?” Marvin casts a skeptical glance at Frank. “He did pass out last time.”

“That comes up again and I’m walking back to civilization.” Cooper interjects loudly. 

And then a  _ very naked _ Russian is standing in the little living room. There’s no real sound of bones breaking this time, but it’s still hard to watch. His skin contorts, shifts like something is trying to escape. Everything looks  _ wrong _ and Cooper has to force himself to keep watching as nausea roils in his stomach. 

And then there’s a  _ giant brown bear _ standing before him.

“Gonna pass out now?”

“Fuck off,” he might. 

“I see we’re enjoying show and tell,” Victoria lets herself back into the cabin with a fresh burst of cool fall air. Ivan makes his escape out the door as she does but no one makes a move to stop him. 

“Is it- can he just wander off like that?” He’s a  _ bear _ . 

“Of course dear,” Victoria hands up her jacket. “He is still Ivan, despite how he may look. No, he’s just off to catch some fish in the river we passed on our way up. I know he’s been dying to check for salmon.” 

Cooper scrubs his hands over his face and decides against screaming. 

“So Ivan is a bear,”

“A Kamchatka brown bear,” Victoria comes and joins him on the couch. There’s a slight chill to the room now; Frank adds a few more logs to the fire. “Like his mother and his nephew.” 

Of  _ course _ there’s more of them.

“And you and Frank are werewolves…”

“I generally prefer shifter, but yes.” She eyes him for a long moment. “Francis, get us the whiskey, will you? I think William could use it.”

_ Finally  _ someone is talking sense. 

 

::

 

Ivan shows up again around dinner when Cooper is happily buzzed. 

He laughs when he spots Frank and Cooper lying on the living room rug, a half empty bottle of whiskey between them, Cooper asking questions and Frank looking offended even as he answers. So far it has been confirmed- vampires, fake. Zombies, fake. Silver allergy, real and a pain in the ass apparently. Knotting- not to be discussed because neither of them are  _ that  _  drunk.

“I think it’s time you ate something.” Ivan helps pull them both up off the floor, steering them towards the delicious smell of Marvin's cooking. Ivan presses a kiss to Victoria’s cheek where she’s seated at the table, depositing his charges in two more chairs. 

“Ivan,” Cooper accepts the coffee pressed into his hands with a murmured thanks, “there are others in your family who can do what you can?”

“Yes,” he lights up at the topic. “My mama has been able to since she was little, just like her mama. And my nephew, though not my brother unfortunately. I spent a lot of time with Evgeni when he was little, teaching him how to shift, and hunt. Mostly though not to eat the couch cushions.” 

Cooper laughs, something so bizarre but sweet about the image. 

“And of course being able to turn into a feared animal was good for business.” He winks, reminding Cooper abruptly that the sweet older man he calls his friend has such a dark past. But then, they all do, don’t they. 

“So what the hell was Kowalski?” 

“A  _ really _ nasty Kappa.” Marvin mutters as he dishes out what turns out to be an amazing smelling sunday soup- a mishmash of whatever vegetables they happened to have the fridge stocked with. “Seems like he decided you would make a good meal.”

Cooper’s stomach turns at that and suddenly the food isn’t looking as delicious. 

Franks touch on his thigh startles him, drags him away from those unpleasant thoughts as he starts to sober up. It’s a warm, firm touch; it sends heat through him. 

Victoria clears her throat and he realizes an awkward silence has descended on them. He shrugs it off, grabs his spoon and digs in, focuses on how good it tastes, rather than what might have been. Even then, it’s still awhile before Frank removes his hand. 

 


End file.
